Acupuncture..

I've had a couple of courses of it, both times for back problems. The first time I felt it helped, or the back improved anyway, the second time it didn't. The accupuncture itself was fine, you can feel the needles go in but it's not painful. They kind of flick the needles into place. I've had needles in feet, hands, top of my head, hip and back. The head one was odd, and once I had one on the side of my little finger and that one was a bit sore, but nothing too bad. I hope it helps for you.

When I was 14 I started the course of acupuncture for bronchitis and bad skin rash (which I used to treat with cortisone).

It really hurt at the start and some points even bled by the end of the session. But it was worth it. After a full year treatment the rashes were gone and bronchitis was almost non existent. After 2 further years of going back every Autumn for maintanance, I was rid of it. Only had bronchitis again once I came back to UK, and I stopped treatment and only happened 3 times in 4 years.

When I was 19, I stopped getting my period. Was 9 months of no period at all. Went to doctor who said nothing was wrong with me. Went back to acupuncture and 2 months later got my period.

So I am a huge advocate of the stuff. In Brazil they are recognized by private health plans as well as a legit treatment.

It is much more than just the needles. You learn more about yourself and what is unbalanced.

For the skin and bronchitis issue, it was because I was keeping feelings to myself. I rarely let myself feel angry or cry or voice out what I thought about stuff. That made my kidneys not to filter all my emotions, then the lungs don't get the proper "clean" blood, so the bronchitis. Because my case was so severe, the skin rash started as an overflow for it all. The points they target was for the emotions and therefore the organs. I also was told to avoid sugar and eat more fish as I am a "fire" element. That helped a LOT.

For the period problem, it was some trauma I got when I got my first period, or something that even my mum passed to me when she got her period!

So I know everything is very new age, but like I said, it worked for me.

Good luck and I hope it works for you too! x

Get better soon x x

It works via the placebo effect. There is no evidence that it works beyond this. There is no plausible mechanism for it working.

Are you getting it for free? If so, why not? But fingers crossed you don't get hepatitis. If not, save your money and invest in some physio.

My mum tried it for migraines and it did nothing but stressed her out so much she took up smoking again. In the end what helped the most was medicine. She got a referral to a specialist who titrated her analgesia accordingly to ensure maximum effect with minimum side effects

You have GOT to be kidding? Your kidneys filter blood, not emotions.

Lil_2014. Would you mind telling me the contact details for your acupuncturist please? Does s/he have a website?

Do you think a year is an acceptable length of time to still fail to treat bronchitis?

In the absence of conventional medical treatment, most cases self-resolve in three weeks. Even chronic bronchitis should only take months. So in fact, your acupuncturist very likely prolonged your issue.

Sorry it seems lie an attack here lil, this subject (well, the whole world of alternative "medicine") is a, um, pet topic of mine and I'm genuinely amazed at what you've written. I hope you don't feel unable to reply. I would be very interested in exploring this.

Oh gawd! ?

I'm paying for the treatment, it's at a physio clinic that was recommended to me via GP's surgery...I'll have a physio assessment +/- acupuncture therapy as well..

I really do hope I get some benefit from it!!

Choose the minus option and opt for a decent massage.

I must admit that I kind of felt the same after reading that too..

Not at all, I was ready for this kind of reply. Is not everyone who believes, but like I said, it worked wonders for me and I was able to come off cortisone for my skin and other ever stronger and more addictive medicines for my bronchitis. I was on-off medicines and inhalation (is that how you call in ENglish when you have to go to hospital to have vaporized medicine breathed into you?) for 14 years of my life before then. The period was another inexplicable "cure" with no other treatment or medicine.

I don't see why people would call me a liar, because I don't see a reason to lie about it?

I do not and will never claim is not a placebo, I just say it worked for me, and the acupuncturists explained yeah, the kidney filters blood, and thats why my lung couldn't work properly, because I wasn't dealing with my emotions, it was getting clogging up the kidneys, the lung then didn't work and the skin burst in rashes because the lung wasn't working. By "balancing" the emotions through acupuncture, eating more fish, and starting to express myself more (I started to write a diary, to have conversations with the mirror until I was strong and confident enough to start having arguments and speak up freely). All of these I believe helped. And it took a whole year to stop the medicines, stop the long sleeves covering the rashes and two more years of going every 3 months to ensure it wouldn't come back.

On your other question, I could give you the name of my acupuncturists, but this was a long time ago and back in Brazil - as I said before, once I moved ere I did not need it anymore, so haven't done so - I am not sure how it would help?

About the hepatitis claim, I would never even consider it! ? When I did it in Brazil, I was given a brand new set of needles, opened in front of me, and they accompanied me to life (I still have them). You are not supposed to share not only because of diseases, but because "energy" from other people my interfere your treatment.

Hope it cleared things up!

Happy to answer any more questions Otters might have

Well, as I said on my previous answer, I lived 14 years with it. It was an on-off thing, it wasn't like I was with a bronchitis crisis for a whole year non stop! I would have crisis every other month, and all doctors could do was manage each crisis, which meant every dosage had to get higher and higher and I was getting more and more addicted to it.

After I started the acupuncture, I stopped the medicine (unless the crisis came on too strong, which were very rare during treatment) the crisis started to space themselves more and more until they were gone.

Could it all have been a coincidence? Absolutely. If I could go back and chose between doing it or just stay with conventional medicine? Absolutely would do it again! It got it sorted, and that's the story I have to tell.

My girl had acupuncture for her inability to get pregnant.

It is an amazing story, I won't say it isn't. That's why I thought was worth the time away from work to type and let you know it worked for someone (me!). Up to you if you want to believe it or not, at the end of the day.

Why don't you try Footers suggestion first (avoid it and go for massage/physio) and then if you are still struggling or don't get results, go with acupuncture.No harm in that! Then if it is just a placebo, and the placebo works for you, isn't it the end result you're after? ? It was for me!

Also if you can, try to get recommendations to someone who knows what they are doing. That is VERY important, can't stress it enough.

Of course, might have been! But it was the acupuncturists who taught me so (3 different ones through the course of my life).

Hard to pinpoint if it was the acupuncture or the psychological side of it, as I did both at the same time. ?

That's why I always explain the whole story, so people know the full picture and can make decisions by themselves.

Totally are with EF, I think stress and low emotion can hugely prolong illness and I've experienced that.

I would recommend for neck/back pain but an old colleague went for acupuncture for her migraines (bed bound and often, medication didn't help) she was hugely skeptical and had to be persuaded by her daughter. It helped her massively. I'm a bit of a skeptic too but I have thought about it as I have a really bad back and have loads of kidney/urine infections. If there was a chance it would help then yeah, why not?

It's not though, is it? You're being asked to decide whether you think the improvement in your health was due to:

1. An implausible alternative treatment with no scientific evidence for efficacy and no scientific evidence to support the underlying theory regarding meridians, energy, balance or Chi.

2. The positive effect of good mental health (via destressing, developing coping mechanisms, invoking the placebo effect) on general health, something which is well-studied and generally accepted scientifically, with solid biological mechanisms underpinning it.

You still can't pick which you think was more likely to have helped you?

FWIW mine was given by a physio after normal physio massageyness had failed to help. Bupa paid.

It's still not clear what was clogging up your kidneys? Emotions? Or blood?

Ok, acupuncture says that you and your body needs to work well as one. If you have emotional unbalance, a different organ will stop working properly depending on the issue. If you don't balance it, another organ will then stop working properly. All must be working as a chain and together and balanced.

Kidneys are supposed to be the organs responsible for the anger and sadness. So if you are balanced, it will work well, if the unbalance is small, it works overtime to try and filter it, without causing any big issues. If it goes untreated, it then slowly stops to provide good clean blood to the rest of the body. Then the next one to deal with anger and sadness is the lungs. That's when the bronchitis would fire up. After killing the bronchitis with strong medicines I had to breath-in and take pills for, the skin would be the last resource for the body to release the sadness and angry energy I was "swalling up", I had rashes on my joints and by the end of my lips. The lips ones would crack and bleed sometimes and was hard to eat.

The acupuncture treatment started by targeting the skin rashes (but still along with lungs and kidney points, that's where the kidney points would bleed and they explained was normal as was the most unbalanced organ), then lungs and last kidneys.The pain in the points would stop with time, but I agree that might have been due to callousing, but I was told could have been because the balancing was working.

I had to go back 2 years during autumn (also specific for my case) to re-balance the kidneys functions.

I know it probably sounds a lot of mambo jambo, and because I am not a acupuncturist myself, I can't explain it 100%. I only can tell what they told me. But I recommend you read more about it if you want to find out more. Sorry I can't be much help!

-x-x-x-

If I ever try acupuncture for anything and it doesn't work, I will be the first one to admit it and include it to my experiences.

Do acupuncturists study any kind of science ever?

Out of interest why do gps refer people to acupuncturists if it's not a medical therapy?

Lack of knowledge, outdated ideas, clever application of placebo.

So is it something that used to be considered useful and now isn't? Or is it a way of resolving patients who are actually fine? Could it be perhaps that the gp and the acupuncture practitioner have a deal where they split the profits?!

In medieval times people believed that diseases were caused by excess blood in the body which could then be cured by bloodletting. This has since been disproven by science, although it was a common medical practice for over 2000 years, and may have had an unintentional benefit in reducing blood pressure so people may have found themselves indirectly feeling better. I really don't mean to be harsh, but I really really can't understand how someone can believe that the lungs or kidneys are in anyway related to emotions when this is also completely disproven by everything we know about biology. If you believe that, then do you also believe that bloodletting is a valid medical practice?

For anyone that is interested this is the NHS's summary list of evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture for various ailments. It doesn't link to the actual papers about the clinical studies but it does state that most evidence points towards it being a placebo effect and that there is no evidence for the existence of Qi or meridians.

/conditions/acupuncture/

Some acupuncturists are very into the traditional beliefs and I would have a hard time believing them, however there are some practitioners who side more with the idea of muscle and nerve stimulation and sometimes distinguish themselves by referring to the practice as trigger point dry needling. Again there is limited evidence in support of dry needling but equally there isn't enough evidence yet to say it is simply a placebo effect.

I have had dry needling combined with electrical stimulation done on a running injury and the difference in my muscle pain before and after treatment was remarkable. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject but in my particular case I can believe the theory that the therapy released tension in my muscle and increased blood flow to the area, although I put it down more to the electrical stimulation rather than the needles themselves. My physiotherapist has two science based degrees and we had a long chat about how the technique is different from traditional acupuncture. I remain skeptical about the scope of treatments where it would be effective but if I ever tear a muscle again I would not hesitate to have it done again.

I had it done for back/neck/shoulder problems too. Given the treatment by a Nuffield physio (paid for with private healthcare). I had two sessions in conjunction with months of physio. I'd say he first time it helped, I felt like pressure was lifted and the muscle causing the problem relaxed. I also felt high. The second time I didn't really feel it did anything. The physio and stretching exercises helped the most for sure. Wouldn't knock it though, if it sorts a problem for someone, however it works (or tricks you!) that is a good thing surely?

Exactly what I was going to say!

You think lying and deceit in the peddling of fake medical treatments should be allowed in a modern healthcare system?

It should also be borne in mind that acupuncture is not harmless. The side effects can be severe and even deadly:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/07/04/judo-acupuncture-needle/

http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/12/10-076737/en/

Now, it is, of course, the case that any conventional treatment carries a risk of adverse effects. However, that risk is always measured against the potential benefit of proceeding with the treatment. Where a treatment is of extreme benefit, we accept a high risk of complications. When a treatment is of low benefit, we accept proportionally lower risk of complications.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-trilogy-of-acupuncture-terror/

Acupuncture has no true benefit as a treatment. It does not work. Therefore, there is no acceptable level of risk. People are being harmed for no reason.

Is venesection/phlebotomy a type of blood letting? The husband has to have this.

p.s. - Footlong, your new avatar is scary.